Hi everyone,
I've been coaching a few years now and up until now I have not really analyzed my athletes in terms of their cadence.
I recently purchased a few GPS watches in order to better track my team on training runs. The watches have a function that determines cadence by counting the arm motion of the runner.
I am aware of Daniels 180 foot strikes per minute s being ideal among distance runners.
What I discovered among my athletes has surprised me and I feel I need a little advice on what to do with the information I've gathered.
My top male runner runs with a cadence of 165 regardless of a training run or tempo run. Of course his stride length increases accordingly as he speeds up.
My top female runner runs her training runs at a cadence of 172 and her tempo runs at 179. I find this to be the norm amongst my athletes in that their stride and cadence increases as their speed increases.
The rest of the runners are all over the place. I have really slow runners with a stride rate of 175-180 and faster runners with a rate under 170.
It seems like with a regular training schedule their stride length will just naturally increase but it doesn't appear to be the same with the cadence piece
Should I be focusing on some shorter type workouts with a fast turnover with the kids who have a slow cadence or could I correct these problems with some drills?
Is this something I should work on correcting? If so, how? Is there anyone here who has experience in correcting this with a positive outcome?